In Every Generation
by SayWhaaat
Summary: Lima is on a Hellmouth and Santana Lopez has just become the new slayer. How will she deal with her destiny? Can she save the world and get the girl while still being an average teenager? Glee, BTVS style. Brittana.
1. Prologue

**In Every Generation**

Summary: Lima is on a Hellmouth and Santana Lopez has just become the new slayer. How will she deal with her destiny? Can she save the world and get the girl while still being an average teenager?

Author's note: So this idea just came to me the other day and I thought I'd follow it through. It's based on Buffy for things like what vampires are like, the type of things that can happen, etc. but not technically a crossover since there's no BTVS characters, it's just the glee kids Buffy style. Set in season one, I'm thinking after the unholy trinity joins glee but before Quinn gets pregnant (which might not happen, we'll see) and everything that happens up to that point can be assumed to have happened in here. Will probably be Brittana. This is un-beta'd so any mistakes are mine and if you see anything that doesn't make sense please let me know. Hope you enjoy :-)

* * *

Santana Lopez sighed quietly to herself as she sat at the back of the classroom watching Mr. Schuester totally butcher Spanish pronunciation. She'd had a long day, from early morning Cheerio practise, lessons, a lunchtime glee rehearsal, more lessons, and being on the receiving end of a poorly-aimed slushy in the hallway in between her last classes. Getting yelled at for being late because she'd had to change her uniform had really just been the icing on top of a really terrible cake and she just wanted to get home, have a long shower and laze around her house for the evening.

She wasn't even pretending to pay attention to the lesson – as if she'd need to even on a good day, since sophomore grade Spanish was hardly challenging when she's had the language down since she could talk. Her options for distracting herself were limited with her intentionally ignoring her phone, and she was too exhausted and angry to focus on anything for too long. The realisation that it was only Monday actually sparked a headache.

Santana had taken to watching the second hand tick along on the clock when it started; a low rumbling sound became audible just before the ground itself began to vibrate. Mr Schuester paused from writing notes on the board, and Santana noticed the jocks snoozing with their heads on their desks woke up and looked around just as Rachel Berry snapped her head up from where she had been taking colour-coded notes as the building began to tremor and the earth beneath them moved. Most of the students looked to their teacher for instruction, as he stood at the front totally unsure of what to do.

The brunette cheerio stayed in her seat, gripping onto the edge of the table as her heart began to race a little faster. A couple of the students had actually dived under their desks while everyone else remained seated but looked no less panicked about the sudden quake.

Almost as quickly as it had started, it was over. Their was no major damage - the earthquake managed to dislodge some of the lighter objects in the classroom from their places on shelves and had set off a few car alarms in the school parking lot. The rest of the students slowly settled down with the few who had hit the deck slowly emerging from beneath their desks looking a little bit embarrassed about what turned out to be an overreaction. There was barely time for Mr Schue to ask "is everyone alright?" before the bell rang signalling the long awaited end to the school day.

Santana suddenly felt quite ill. She scooped her things into her bag with more force than she had intended and swiftly left the room to head to her locker before going home. The corridor quickly filled out around her with a buzz of conversation about the oddity of an earthquake happening in Ohio. She heard someone call her name behind her but didn't turn around as she bumped into someone's shoulder, not apologising for the way they slammed back into the lockers because she didn't even notice. She pulled up alongside her locker and quickly managed to pull it open without even bothering with the combination and swap over her books to grab her homework. Slamming her locker shut with such force that it dented slightly, she made her way towards the parking lot, started up her car and tried not to break the speed limit as she made her way home.

She walked into the empty house, dumping her bag by the front door and barely thinking to close it before heading upstairs and jumping in the shower. Ignoring the missed calls and texts that had been building up since she got in her car, she closed her curtains, changed into sweats and a t-shirt before turning her phone off and climbing into bed, passing out almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.

* * *

The beaten up car with the blacked-out windows that followed her home was gone by the time her parents pulled up after finishing work, but arrived at her house in time to catch her leaving for school the next day. Santana failed to notice the two sets of eyes following her movements as she dragged herself to her car, fumbled with the controls and pulled away.

"I want to help her." a blue eyed blond uttered weakly to their companion.

"Very well, Samuel. But she doesn't know her destiny yet."


	2. Chapter 1

Author's note: So like the chapter title said, the last chapter was just a kind of prologue. The story gets started in this one. Hope you enjoy :-)

* * *

"Attention students. I have a couple of announcements I wish to make before we let our cheerleaders perform their well-practised routine to the music of key-dollar sign-ha. Firstly we have a new member of faculty, Miss Corcoran, who will be taking over as our our librarian following the sudden disappearance of..."

Santana completely zoned out from Principal Figgins' awkwardly paced announcements to the student body currently seated in the gym for the pep rally. She just wanted to get this performance out of the way and get back to her lunch. She was still feeling kind of sick from yesterday.

"Hey," she felt a tap on her shoulder and knew the hushed greeting had been for her, "are you ignoring me?" She almost didn't look round, internally debating just to continue ignoring the other cheerio and never having this conversation. But the quiet "San, please." got to her and her resolve crumbled. She turned around to face the other girl.

"I'm not ignoring you, Brit Brit, I just think we should spend some time apart." It was totally bullshit, of course. Santana had been going out of her way to keep her distance ever since the weekend. Brittany could be slow sometimes but there was no way she wouldn't have noticed how edgy Santana had been in her presence, and how rare it had been for her to see Santana at all over the last couple of days.

"Is this because we hooked up?" Santana's eyes widened in panic and she gripped the other girls arm and looked around to make sure no one had overheard what Brittany had casually just let slip.

"Shh! Don't – just – we shouldn't talk about it. At least not here. Later, okay?" Brittany had looked slightly hurt so Santana tried to bring some softness into her voice as she dodged the inevitable discussion. Truthfully she had been avoiding Brittany since the Friday night. What had started out as a double date with Brittany, a couple of football players and some booze had ended up with them ditching the guys for a sleepover back at Santana's place with them being a lot more touchy-feely than usual.

Santana wasn't sure if she regretted sleeping with Brittany or not. The occasion itself had been guided by what made them feel good – they worked together to place the perfect touches, whisper the right things, move in the right ways - and she can't say she wasn't enjoying herself at the time. But hindsight has perfect vision and factoring in her Catholic upbringing, the homophobic nature of the entire town, and her current reputation of being friendly with the male majority of the school she knew there was way more to this than she was willing to think about. Besides, Brittany was supposed to be her best friend, and last time she checked that wasn't something that best friends should be doing.

"Okay." Brittany leaned back into her seat just behind Santana's shoulder as the quaterback of the football team tried to talk some school spirit into the student body. Soon enough it was time for the cheerleaders to take their positions upon the gym floor as their routine song started up.

Everything was going okay, maybe not their best performance, and certainly not Santana's but even though she was past the point of caring she was still getting all her moves and poses in the correct order in time. The song was approaching the end and Santana braced herself for her final stunt – lifting and supporting one of her team mates (whose name she couldn't care to remember) as one of the lower tiers of their pyramid. The other cheerio moved up to stand in front of Santana and she gripped her foot and leg and tensed her muscles ready to lift in three, two, one...

A gasp echoed around the gym as rather than the firm lift Santana had intended, she surprised herself with strength she never knew she had and launched the other girl into the air. Everyone seemed to freeze as the girl moved through the air above the team. Time slowed down around Santana as she realised what had happened – but with no clue _how –_ and she quickly broke out of her position to move a couple of feet back to where she thought the girl might land, not even thinking about what she was doing as she stretched out her arms. The airborne cheerio let out a short scream on her way down, followed by an "oof!" as Santana caught her safely in her arms.

The stunned silence clouding the gym was broken by a slow, unsure, clap which kicked off a round of applause, quickly becoming a standing ovation. The entire cheerleading squad seemed to let out a breath none of them knew they had been holding and proceeded to smile up at the rest of the student body, letting out improvised chants of "Go titans!" and doing their best to act as if Santana's mistake had been completely intentional.

Santana was still holding the other cheerio, looking slightly horrified as what she had done sunk in. She was snapped out of her daze by a sharp "what the fuck is wrong with you, Lopez? Put me down, you freak!" from the girl in question as she tried to pull herself out of the secure grip Santana was holding her with. Santana almost dropped the girl in her haste to lower her back to her own feet and on glimpsing the disgusted look on her face, uttered a quick "I'm sorry" before turned on her heel and racing out of the gym, unnoticed amongst the cheers of the still-standing crowd in the bleachers.

Running through the hallways she made her way across the school, trying to get as far from the gym as she could before turning into the next bathroom, closing the door and leaning back against it trying to get her heart rate under control. She thought she'd heard footsteps behind her but no-one tried to enter the bathroom so she ignored it. She moved forward to the sink, turned the cold tap on and gathered some water in her hands to splash on her face.

_What the hell happened back there? _Even when her body relaxed her mind was still racing. She gazed up into the mirror above the sink to see herself as she had been that morning. No super-huge biceps or bulging muscle. She just couldn't understand how she had been capable of such a thing when she hadn't even been _that_ focused on the routine.

Lunch would be finished soon and she didn't want to hang around long enough for Coach Sylvester to ask her to explain herself, especially when she could barely put the pieces together herself. Frustration welled within her and without thinking she lifted her hand and brought a fist down on the sink hard. The surface beneath her cracked and she suddenly felt scared of herself. _What's happening?_ She made the decision just to cut the rest of the day and go home early. She turned around just as the bathroom door closed.

She froze. "Hello?" she called out, wondering if someone had come in while she had been stuck in her thoughts. No one answered and she couldn't see anyone else in there, so she went to the door and stuck her head out. She looked to the left to see the empty hallway she had ran down to get here from the gym. Snapping her head to the right she thought she saw a figure move round the corner at the end of the corridor.

She started to follow, leaving the bathroom and walking down the hallway. The only footsteps she could hear were her own but then she was quite far behind the person she thought she'd seen. She moved quickly and quietly to the end of the corridor, slowing when she approached the corner and taking a deep breath before carefully peering round. Her eyebrows knit together in confusion when she saw the hallway was completely empty, and she let out a sigh of disappointment.

"Santana." She jumped in surprise at her name and whipped round to come face to face with Brittany.

"Oh...Britt, you scared me." She almost laughed at herself before remembering that she was now face to face with the person she was now most hoping to avoid. She actually started weighing up which topic she'd least like to discuss: the fact that she had sex with her best friend and was completely confused about it, or the fact that she had just thrown a 102-pound senior 20 feet in the air completely by accident, caught her like a superhero and then ran away.

"What happened back there?" Brittany was very open about her emotions, Santana knew, and so the look of confusion and fear that appeared on her best friend's face upon bringing up Santana's surprise cheerleading stunt made Santana even more uncomfortable than she had been already. _What if she thinks I'm dangerous? What if it looked like I was trying to hurt that girl?_

Santana decided to do what seemed to come easiest to her in times like this: completely dodge the subject, make her excuses and get out of there. "Sorry, B, can't talk now, I'm late for something. Talk later, okay?" She turned around to head the way she had been going from the bathroom, but didn't make it fast enough.

"Late for what?" Brittany's hand caught her wrist and turned back around. The look of hurt was back on the blonde's face and Santana was suddenly taken by a wave of guilt on top of everything else. She made a mental note to make some time for her later.

"Uh, extra practise...for glee." Santana made it up on the spot, of course, and waited for Brittany's expression to change so see if she'd got away with it. "Private practise. Because I was sloppy last rehearsal." She made sure to sound as unenthusiastic about the idea as she could. While she did kind of enjoy glee, she would completely deny it if asked. It was easy enough to act like she hated it during the meetings too, since Rachel Berry was literally the most annoying person on earth and she's pretty sure the piano guy was totally ogling her last rehearsal.

They only joined the show choir so that Quinn could keep tabs on her relationship or because Coach Sue wanted to destroy the club and get her funding back or something – as if the club was much of a threat, really, they were such a rag-tag group of misfits that they probably would've failed soon enough if left to their own devices; making the three talented cheerleaders join would surely only make the club better and less likely to fail? But whatever, right now she was almost grateful to have to excuse to get away from talking to Brittany.

Brittany appeared to accept this and nodded. "Okay. Have fun." She said before turning around and walking back down the hall the direction she had appeared from.

Santana figured that no one would be in the choir room, and since she was trying to avoid everyone she might as well just sit in there for the rest of lunch and try and get her head together and work out what had happened, her plan to skip the rest of the day abandoned. The choir room was just down the corridor so she kept walking until she approached the room, and upon seeing it was empty she made her way inside and closed the door behind her. The school was still silent, she assumed the rally was still taking place. She took a seat at the piano rested her elbows on the closed lid and placed her head in her hands.

She wasn't even sure where to begin. _Since when could I actually throw someone like that? Did I get away with it? What's coach going to say? What if that girl tells on me for being a freak? Am I a freak? Is Brittany scared of me? Maybe if she's scared of me she'll keep her distance and we won't have to talk about...those other things. Did someone actually come into the bathroom, maybe it was just Brittany? But then why was __she behind me? Maybe I should head home? Am I safe to be around? What if I hurt someone? _Her mind skipped across the different concerns she was juggling. She was starting to get a headache.

"Santana Lopez." The voice caught her so off-guard that she actually jumped up from the bench and almost fell backwards. Shehad completely forgotten about the other door to the choir room, she didn't even notice him come in. _Would people stop sneaking up on me today?_

"What the hell do you want?" she snapped at the piano guy who usually accompanied the glee club meetings. He was just standing there staring at her and his tone of voice made her skin crawl. "And how do you know my name?" _As if being a complete pervert during glee practise wasn't enough, has he been stalking me or something?_

"I've been looking for you. You have to come with me." Santana didn't even know the guy could speak in full sentences, and she really didn't like what she was hearing.

"You wish, tinkles. Can't you spy on someone a little closer to your own age?" For some reason, this caused the corner of his mouth to twitch up in a half-smile as if he knew something important and Santana suddenly felt uninformed, as if she was missing the main pieces of a puzzle...a puzzle about herself; the realisation sent a slight shiver down her spine.

"Miss Lopez, my name is Brad. I have been sent to inform you of your destiny. There is more to the world than you think there is, and you are more important than you know."

Santana let out a snort of laughter. _Well that's the classiest pick-up line I've ever heard. _"Funny. Did coach Sylvester send you? Am I in trouble?"

"Probably. That didn't look like your typical cheerleading stunt. Tell me, since when could a girl your size throw someone the same weight as you around and make it look so easy?" He didn't sound particularly mad, and seemed more interested in the act itself rather than her being punished for putting someone in danger. Santana couldn't figure out his angle.

"Why do you care?" She picked up her bag. "If you're going to keep wasting my time I have more important things to be doing." She made for the door nearest to her, turning her back on Brad. She had her hand on the door handle when he caught her attention again.

"Oh, you have no idea. And I care, Miss Lopez, because you're going to save the world." His words stopped her in her tracks.

She head footsteps as Brad moved to shut the door he had entered through and pulled down the blind over the door window. She hesitated before closing the blind on her own door, not entirely sure why but just sensing it was the appropriate thing to do. She turned back around and walked to the centre of the room, squaring up her shoulders and sending Brad a strong glare. She made an effort to appear powerful, to try and gain back some of the control she felt that Brad had commandeered. Her efforts were completely undermined by how weak her voice came out. "What do you want from me?"

Brad's face dropped into something that looked a little more sympathetic than the know-it-all smirk he had been sporting just a minute before. He took a step closer and looked into her eyes. "This is going to be difficult for you to hear at first, I'm sure, and you might feel like you're not ready. But it will all make sense when you start training." Santana was almost scared to ask. She let out an audible gulp, opened and closed her mouth a couple of times before closing her eyes and getting to the point.

"Training for what?" The silence in the room carried with it a crescendo of tension. The answer to this question was probably going to be important. A part of her took a moment to appreciate how quickly the atmosphere had changed – just minutes ago she had been accusing him of being a pervert and laughing at what she now realised was his attempt to ease her into this discussion. She suddenly wished she'd taken the prelude more seriously.

"Training for you, Santana..." He seemed to hesitate. She didn't look ready to hear this. Was it too soon? But they were running out of time. She had to know. "You are a vampire slayer."

Santana's face shifted into one of total confusion and she opened her eyes to take in his face for a moment, before it cracked into a smile and she began to bark out laughter. They both knew how ridiculous it sounded, and for a moment Brad worried the seriousness of the news had totally gone over her head. But her eyes betrayed her. Somehow she knew he wasn't joking.


	3. Chapter 2

Author's note: Hi! I hope everyone is enjoying this so far (I know there's not much to go on yet). Just to say I know at some point I said this will _probably _be Brittana...I meant_ definitely_, it just might take a while to get there so please be patient! Also just to verify for future chapters, this story kind of goes from the end of Showmance and ignores pretty much everything that happens afterwards, or some of it might happen but not in the right order, or might happen in a different way, or it may already have happened 'off-screen'...make sense? Probably not, sorry if it's confusing! If you're enjoying it (or even if you're not, let me know why!) or if you have any questions please feel free to review or PM. Either ways, on with the chapter :-)

* * *

"_Training for you, Santana..." He seemed to hesitate. She didn't look ready to hear this. Was it too soon? But they were running out of time. She had to know. "You are a vampire slayer."_

_Santana's face shifted into one of total confusion and she opened her eyes to take in his face for a moment, before it cracked into a smile and she began to bark out laughter. They both knew how ridiculous it sounded, and for a moment Brad worried the seriousness of the news had totally gone over her head. But her eyes betrayed her. Somehow she knew he wasn't joking._

Santana's laughter died down quickly and left her looking quite lost. Brad gestured towards the chairs behind her and she took a seat silently, looking up to him as he moved closer and he began filling her in on the basics. He didn't want to rush though everything, and he certainly didn't want to give her more information than she could handle, since this was literally life-changing news. But she needed to be informed as soon as possible.

"It is written: in every generation there is a Chosen One. She alone will face the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness. She is the slayer." He recited. Santana didn't look any more enlightened so he continued. "When a slayer dies a new one is chosen. She will develop the powers and skills necessary for performing her duties as a slayer. She cannot reject her destiny or change who she is. Once she becomes a slayer she can't go back-"

"Vampires aren't real." Santana clung to this thought as if it would turn around everything Brad had just told her. "Vampires aren't real, so you don't need slayers. I don't have to be a slayer if there's nothing to slay." She looked into his eyes as if pleading with him to agree with her. She didn't even fully understand what he was telling her but she knew from the sound of it that it was something huge. She couldn't deal with that right now.

"I'm afraid they're very real. They try to keep to themselves, obviously, but you may have heard in the news about people disappearing, and then showing up dead later with strange markings on their necks...all of the blood drained from their body...sound familiar?" Santana took a moment to think about it, and it made sense. She had heard about these deaths. Thankfully, none of them were anyone she knew personally so she tended to just ignore them. She'd only heard of one person from McKinley experiencing a similar fate.

"Last year a girl from the cheerios disappeared and was found in the cemetery. She died of blood loss..." She trailed off. Brad nodded, but Santana didn't see. Santana looked to the front of the room, but from her expression you could tell she wasn't really _seeing _it. This was _insane._ She turned to Brad as another question arose. "You said when a slayer dies, a new one is chosen...so who died?"

Brad looked to the ground as he answered, looking suddenly a lot less enthusiastic about this conversation. "Her name was Claire. She didn't go here. She was from Crawford County Day, the girl's school on the other side of town." Santana looked down too, as if trying to convey respect for the loss. They both stayed silent for a moment, Brad allowing Santana time to think over the bomb he had just dropped on her.

She was trying so hard to wrap her head around it. It was as if the information she had just acquired had opened up a whole new side to the world. She wasn't sure she was okay with it.

"I know it's a lot to think about. But we need you to be ready, and soon. Lima is on a hellmouth – a kind of 'hotspot' for supernatural evil," Brad quickly explained at Santana's look of confusion. "You are the only slayer, the only one who can fight them, and I don't want to rush you, but the sooner you are ready the better. That earthquake wasn't just tectonic plates, Santana. Something big is coming. You need to be able to handle it. We need _you _to protect the world."

Santana slowly sat back in her seat as the full weight of her situation settled on her. Lima is crawling with evil. Vampires were real. She's the only person who can stop them. It's her destiny. She's stuck like this. _Why me?_

The bell ringing to signal the end of lunch interrupted the heavy silence that had settled in the room and Santana didn't hesitate to grab her bag and make her way to the door. Brad called after her."Santana, we need to discuss this furthe-"

"I'm going to be late." She didn't even turn around as she pulled the door open so sharply that the handle itself came off as the door swung open. Brad didn't make any attempt to follow her.

She walked quickly down the hallway to her locker as the hallways were slowly clearing from students heading to class. She paused at her locker and leant her forehead against the cool, slightly dented metal. This was going to be an incredibly long week.

She had just swapped out her books and was closing her locker – gently, this time – when she heard footsteps at the end of the now empty corridor. "Lopez, Coach Sylvester wants to see you in her office." the voice of one of the other cheerios rang through her ears. Santana didn't really acknowledge her, just turned in the direction of Sue's office and tried to think of an excuse for her actions in the pep rally. Nothing came to her.

* * *

"As you may have figured out..." Sue peered down through her reading glasses to check the name on the file on her desk "Lopez, I want to know why you decided to pull that little stunt in our performance this afternoon. If you hadn't acted so quickly you could have gotten that girl killed." Santana stood in front of Sue's desk as the coach glared up at her intently from her seat. The cheerio remained silent, completely unsure of what to say. "Were you trying to harm her, or did you think the practiced routine wasn't good enough?" Sue's face dropped a little of its' harshness at the next point. "If you thought that the routine could have been more exciting, Lopez, you just needed to say so. I've been contemplating a routine involving sky-diving but I'm not sure the world is ready for it yet."

"Sorry coach, it was an accident. Won't happen again." Santana just wanted to take her punishment and get out of there.

"Of course, I don't mind sacrificing a few cheerios for the sake of a groundbreakingly fantastic routine," Sue continued as if Santana had never spoken, and Santana's previously meek expression turned into one of concerned curiosity and confusion at the coach's confession, "but first of all, that's my call to make, not yours; and second of all, that's the kind of thing you save for a championship, Lopez. While I like the way you think, and admire your enthusiasm in making my routines as dangerous and entertaining as possible, it's not worth the paperwork if a cheerio dies just for a pep rally at our own school." Santana raised an eyebrow. Coach Sylvester moved to put the student file away in her desk. "Either way, potential death risk or no, your actions deviated from the routine I choreographed, and for that you deserve punishment. Detention every day after school this week, no excuses. You can make up for any missed cheerleading practise in your lunchtimes."

"Thanks, coach." Santana turned to leave, feeling slightly relieved about her punishment. Considering the danger she'd put one of her team-mates in, and coach Sylvester's ruthlessness in the way she treats most students, she definitely got off lightly.

"Oh, and Lopez?" Sue's voice caught her just as she got to the door. She turned back towards the woman.

"Yeah, coach?"

"Nice catch." Sue said, before turning back to the journal on her desk. Santana made her way to class.

* * *

The bell rang at the end of the day and Santana was in no rush to get to her detention. Emerging from the classroom and turning to her left she walked past Quinn and a couple of other cheerios on the way to the room her detention was being held. Quinn tapped her on the arm as she walked past.

"You're not coming to practise?" She asked, sounding surprised. Santana turned to face her.

"Can't. I have detention." Quinn's face dropped into disappointment.

"How did you get detention? Who gave it to you?" Granted, the brunette cheerleader wasn't exactly she perfect student, especially not when her attitude was involved, but she usually managed to avoid any real punishments by casually mentioning how upset Sue would be at the treatment of her national-championship-winning cheerleaders – most of the staff were scared enough of the coach that the cheerios could get away with more than most students.

"Sue. After what happened during the pep rally." Santana really hadn't wanted to bring it up any more than she needed to but since Quinn was capable of putting the pieces together for herself either way she figured there was no point in beating around the bush.

"Oh yeah. What the heck _was_ that, Santana, you really scared Jenna. She said you tried to kill her," Quinn barely took a breath before launching into scolding her team-mate, "I'm surprised you're still on the squad. You can't afford to get kicked off, Santana, we're in glee club now, we need cheerios to balance it out or we're going to get the_ crap _ripped out of us. Do you know what it feels like to be a loser? Those slushies look like they feel horrifying-" Quinn continued to wind herself up as she spoke and Santana decided to cut her off at one of her more arbitrary points before Quinn could get super-bitch angry or coax Santana into some kind of argument over anything important.

"They do. And I still need to kick Karofsky's ass for having terrible aim. Thank you for reminding me. See you tomorrow, Fabray." She said with apathetic sarcasm before turning and marching away.

"Lopez! I wasn't finished!" Quinn's call went unacknowledged so she turned back in the direction she was going and made her way to practise.

* * *

Santana arrived at her detention, held in what was usually the home economics classroom, five minutes late thanks to her run-in with Quinn.

"You must be Santana Lopez. You're late. Have a seat." An unfamiliar voice greeted her from the teacher's desk across the room. The woman, who had dark brown hair and a strong jaw was staring at Santana as she entered. Santana muttered a "sorry" before taking her pick of seat. There were no other students in the room. _That's kind of weird. Like I can't be the only person in school to get afterschool detention today?_

"Where is everybody else?" Santana decided she might as well ask. Brown eyes continued to follow her to her seat. The teacher, who Santana hadn't seen before, ignored her question. Something about the intensity of the woman made something within Santana feel..._off._ Santana tried a different approach to filling the silence. "Who are you?"

"My name is Shelby Corcoran. I'm the new librarian." The older woman explained after a moment's silence. Santana nodded but noticed that Shelby kept her eyes on her the entire time, as if sizing her up in some way. After a minute or so, she spoke again. "You know why you've been given this detention?"

"Because I...modified the cheerleading routine in the pep-rally." Santana decided not to tell this woman more than she might already know given that she was supervising her punishment. She had little doubt that someone slightly more right-minded than Sue might actually care to ask the nitty-gritty questions about what Santana did, and how. A silence stretched out between the two as Miss Corcoran seemed to consider Santana's answer, once again holding her gaze as if waiting to see from Santana's face how honest she was being, but also perhaps looking for something else – confusion? Remorse? The student did her best to stare right back at Shelby, not giving anything away, and eventually Shelby's expression changed into a smirk.

"Well, at least no-one was hurt."

Santana got the distinct impression that this woman knew full well what had happened, the full extent of what Santana had done. From what Santana could gage from overhearing the other students discussing the rally performance, the rest of the cheer squad had done a good enough job at making her actions seem deliberate – in fact, most of the squad seemed under the same impression, perhaps just assuming that Sue hadn't bothered to fill them in on the unexpected twist to the grand finale of the routine. However, the woman in front of her -_ still_ holding her gaze - seemed not to have been fooled. Santana got a similar feeling of unease as she'd had with Brad in the choir room earlier.

Finally Shelby broke off her gaze and turned around the rummage through her bag. Santana actually felt relieved that their staring contest was over. "So...how does this detention work? You want me to write lines or can I just get on with some school work?" Santana asked, her attitude growing back as she changed topic.

"I was thinking I might give you some light reading." Shelby stated as she turned back around and dropped a heavy, old book on the desk in front of Santana. Santana frowned before looking more closely at the book. She let out a gasp as she noticed the title.

_VAMPYR._


	4. Chapter 3

**In Every Generation**

**Chapter 3**

Previously in 'In Every Generation':

_Brad the piano man informs Santana of her destiny as the slayer after witnessing her throw a fellow cheerleader higher than is physically possible - and then catch her - during a pep-rally cheer move._

_Sue punishes Santana for her stunt by giving her a week's after school detention, telling her she'll make up for missed practises during lunchtimes._

_Santana turns up to detention to find herself alone with Shelby Corcoran, the new librarian. Shelby seems to know about what happened in the pep-rally..._

_"So...how does this detention work? You want me to write lines or can I just get on with some school work?" Santana asked, her confidence growing back as she changed topic. _

"_I was thinking I might give you some light reading." Shelby stated as she turned back around and dropped a heavy, old book on the desk in front of Santana. Santana frowned before looking more closely at the book. She let out a gasp as she noticed the title._

_VAMPYR._

* * *

"Judging by what happened earlier, you already have your powers, most noticeably strength. One of the first things we go over in your training will be control, but for now please try to reel it in. We can't have any more incidents like the one in the gymnasium." Shelby talked on as if Santana had even asked, despite the girl being completely distracted by the object in front of her. "No one else knows about you and as you may have figured out, those things are a little hard to explain away without letting people know you're the slayer." On the last word Santana's head snapped up to face her.

"Who are you?" She choked out.

"Oh, I'm sorry, that was rude of me. Like I said, Shelby Corcoran. I'm your Watcher." Shelby pulled a seat to the other side of the desk and sat down opposite the cheerleader.

"My what?"

"Watcher. My job is to train you, to make sure you're ready for what you have to face. To provide some guidance while you work through your destiny. Brad told me he'd filled you in on the basics, he didn't mention this?" Shelby questioned gently, noticing the deep confusion on the girl's face. Santana shook her head. "Okay, well, that's who I am. That's why I'm here. Brad's only duty was to tell you what you are...to introduce you to your destiny, if you like. I have a more...hands-on role in this. You are under my supervision."

This seemed to spark an idea in Santana. "If you know so much about this why can't y-"

"I can't slay the demons for you, Santana, that's not my place. It is _your_ destiny. I don't have the powers you do, I can only teach you how to use them and where to apply them."

"Well, crap." Santana muttered half-heartedly. Shelby smiled, trying to be sympathetic but also reassuring.

"Sorry if I freaked you out with the book," the older woman apologised, looking down and fiddling with the corner of the heavy volume, "I just assumed Brad would have told you who I was, or at least that you should be expecting someone else to approach you about this."

"It's fine." Santana's voice was weary as she tried to piece together everything she had found out today. There were just so many questions. "Does anyone else know? Should I be expecting any one else to pop up out of nowhere and start filling me in on this?"

Shelby could understand the slight hint of annoyance in Santana's voice. "In school, it's just us. I'm a part of something called the Watcher's Council, they assigned me to this position and they know all about you, but you probably won't have to meet them. Besides that, there is someone else, but...I'm not sure of his status. I've just heard rumours that he's arrived in town recently, and if those are true chances are you'll bump into him at some point."

"Why?"

"Because he's a vampire." Santana's face mouthed a silent "oh" and Shelby continued. "But he's on our side. You'll understand more if you meet him but until then, don't worry about it." Santana looked as if she was about to ask more about it, but then seemed to change her mind as she shook her head.

"Am I allowed to tell people? Like, won't people notice if I'm like...super strong now, or if I show up to school with a neck wound or something?"

"You're not supposed to tell anyone. As I mentioned, this is _your _destiny. You're supposed to handle this solo besides my guidance. Like I said, try and reel it in. I'll teach you to control it. And if I'm doing my job properly, you won't get bitten, so don't even think about that." Shelby looked slightly concerned that Santana was already underestimating how well she would be able to defend herself. Santana noticed and decided to do what Shelby said and move on with the conversation.

"Okay then. But...you keep mentioning my powers. Like, powers_ plural? _You said strength. What else do I have?"

"Like we've said, extraordinary strength, which will increase as we train. You also heal faster than other people, so your injuries – yes, I'm afraid there will probably be injuries-" Shelby interrupted herself at the indignant look upon Santana's face, "will clear up quickly. Obviously useful since keeping you out of hospital will make it easier to hide this from people. Also, skills such as endurance and agility are enhanced. Once again, I suggest you reel these in as much as possible. While you may find these skills helpful during cheerleading, and can probably outrun every other girl on that squad without breaking a sweat, we don't want people asking questions. I haven't read the rule book but I suspect using slayer strength to get an edge on the competition may be against the rules." Shelby added dryly, and Santana cracked a small smile. "Just try not to be_ too much_ better than the other girls, okay?"

"Where's the fun in that?" Santana asked sarcastically, and her and Shelby shared a smile. The watcher could tell that Santana was starting to get to grips with her new identity, and was pleased that the news hadn't caused any kind of hysterical breakdown or total denial. As long as Santana was actually asking questions, Shelby felt like she was taking this at her own pace.

Shelby lets her have a moment to let it sink in. "Are there any other questions? There's a lot more we need to go over, but I don't want to make you uncomfortable-"

"It's a little late for that, don't you think?" Santana smiles but her eyes are troubled. Shelby decides to give her the rest of the night off.

"We can go over anything else tomorrow. We have another detention after school. Do you have plans tomorrow night?" Santana shakes her head. "Good. We'll start your physical training tomorrow after school. Until then, be careful. Try to contain your powers, and for God's sake please don't tell anyone about this. No-one can find out who you are – the more people who know, the more you're at risk." Shelby's concerned tone turned to one of sincerity.

"What are you talking about? At risk of what?" Santana, for the first time that day, started to think about the dangers of her situation. But once again, she felt she didn't know the full picture. Shelby sighed, as if weighing up exactly how much else to tell the new slayer.

"You're safe for now, because news of who the new slayer is probably hasn't reached the bad guys. I plan to keep it that way until I've taught you how to fight them off. We have the upper hand so long as your identity remains private. Does that make sense?" Shelby wanted the importance of this to be obvious to Santana, but at the same time didn't want to completely frighten the girl away. People, she knew, could do stupid things out of fear. She was hoping to give the impression of calm severity rather than frantic urgency. By the way Santana nodded her head, she assumed they'd reached it. "You can leave now. Get some rest, you've had a long day."

At Shelby's suggestion, Santana started to realise just how tired she was feeling. _Has it really only been one day? _Again, she nodded mutely before picking up her bag, leaving the heavy book on the desk and making her way out of the door.

* * *

Her mind was so full that she barely even remembered the walk to her car, never mind the drive home. Santana was running completely on autopilot. She'd also been so distracted that she hadn't checked her phone all day. She was completely exhausted, and the ups and downs – _what ups? Just downs. - _of her day had not done anything to improve how sick she felt.

She knew she just needed to take some time to sit and think about everything, maybe try and work through it one thing at a time. All she wanted to do was collapse on her bed and sleep until the world made more sense. _Because that worked out SO well yesterday. Shower first, sleep later _She decided, heading upstairs.

She took her phone from her bag and left it on her bedside table, took out all of her books and placed them on her desk, and then headed into her en-suite bathroom. She took her time, undressing slowly, looking over her body in the mirror to see if she could spot any changes, but like earlier, she didn't look any different. She stepped into the shower, turning the water up hotter and hotter until it was practically burning her skin. She stayed under the spray for about twenty minutes, trying not to think but at the same time trying to make a list of all the things she would have to sort through.

_Talk to Brittany. Don't tell anyone I'm the slayer. Cheer practise tomorrow lunch. Glee rehearsal tomorrow first period. Was there a Glee assignment? Crap, the Spanish essay. And I have a maths test tomorrow. And a chemistry test this week? Was I meant to go over to Puck's yesterday? No wonder he was glaring at me the morning. I should really check my phone._

She almost forgot to wash, quickly washing her hair and cleaning herself before shutting the water off and stepping out. She wrapped a towel around herself and pulled her hair up into a loose bun. It was dark outside, she could tell from the small window in her bathroom. She opened her bathroom door and looked around her room, wondering where to start first. The phone on her night stand, the homework on her desk, the blond guy staring in through her window, the lapto-

_The WHAT?_

Her head snapped back to the window, but there was no one there. She carefully took a couple of steps closer and looked out. Santana's bedroom window faced out over the back garden attached to the house. She scanned her garden carefully, but after a minute gave up and wondered if there had been anything to see at all. _It's been a long day. Maybe I'm just losing it. _

She turned back around and picked up her phone just as she heard the front door open.

"Santana? Mija? You home?" She heard the voice of her mother calling up the stairs. She put her phone down and went to her door, before realising she was still just wearing a towel.

"Sí mama, I'll be down in a minute." she called back, quickly changing into loose sweats and a tank top before heading downstairs. She found her mom in the kitchen "Hey, mami." She greeted softly as the older woman wrapped her in a hug. She hugged back tightly.

"Sweetheart, are you alright?" Maria Lopez asked gently, still holding her daughter. While she knew her daughter could have an attitude at times, and usually wasn't one for physical contact, she couldn't help but notice how...patheticher daughter had looked as she entered the kitchen, and the way she hugged back was even more of a warning sign for Maria that something was probably wrong.

"Just tired." She heard Santana mumble into her shoulder. Santana felt her mother plant a kiss on her head and suddenly wished she could just open up about everything that was wrong right now. Maria knew her daughter wasn't telling the whole truth, but knew there was probably some accuracy in the statement. She gently pulled away from the hug and guided Santana by her shoulders to a seat at the island in the centre of the kitchen.

"You were asleep when we got home yesterday. Are you feeling okay, mija?" she questioned gently, looking into Santana's eyes and hoping it wasn't too serious.

"I've just got a really busy week." Santana actually smiled in a detached way, finding some kind of humour in the fact that she wasn't actually lying. "I haven't been feeling too great recently."

"Have you eaten today?" The elder Lopez suddenly clicked into concerned-mother-mode and turned around to start drawing ingredients for a meal before Santana had even formulated an answer. Santana realised that besides the granola bar she'd grabbed for breakfast, she hadn't had anything to eat since yesterday lunchtime. She was starving. "Chicken lasagne okay?"

"Sí.Thanks, mami." Santana yawned as she replied and Maria smiled slightly to herself. Even if her daughter was clearly having trouble with something at the moment, it was still nice to see her without attitude and actually being polite.

Santana decided to go through the messages and missed calls on her phone while she was waiting for dinner. She went upstairs and grabbed her phone off her dresser, before going back downstairs to her seat in the kitchen. Unlocking it, she could see a dozen different messages from Brittany, ranging from "_We need to talk S, please x_" to "_San I cant remember my locker combo :( where are you?x"_ Again, Santana felt guilty and made the decision to just bite the bullet. She was sick of avoiding her best friend and even though they'd only been apart for four days, Santana really missed her.

She tapped out a new message. "_Sorry B, just been really busy this week. Wanna do something this weekend? xx_" and pressed send. She instantly felt slightly better.

"Did something happen with your friend?" Santana's thoughts were interrupted by the voice of her mother, who had her back to her while cooking over the stove. "She used to be over here all the time. I haven't seen her since last week. Is everything alright?" Maria's tone held nothing but concern as she tried to approach the subject carefully in case something was wrong there. Santana realised her mother noticed a lot more than she was giving her credit for.

"We...I just have a lot going on. It's fine." Santana completely dodged the truth of what had happened but tried to sound convincing on the last sentence. Just then, Santana's phone buzzed with a new text from Brittany. "_No worries :) Sure San, whatever you want x" _Santana smiled and continued clicking through her phone.

Santana had a couple of texts from Quinn and a couple of other girls on the cheerios asking about what had happened in the pep rally which had been sent towards the end of lunch, as well as a couple of more recent ones from Quinn asking how her detention went and informing her that the practise scheduled for after school tomorrow had been moved to 6am tomorrow morning. Santana groaned but shot back a quick text thanking her for the heads up and just describing her detention as 'boring', ignoring all of the texts about the pep rally incident.

As expected, she had unread messages from Puck: two booty calls from last night, one text from this morning asking why she didn't come over and another from about an hour ago: "_Lopez, my birthday party this friday at my place. Be here for 9. Dress hot." _Santana sighed, thinking about whether or not to go. She had a heavy week and thought it might be nice to have one night off, but didn't know if she'd have plans or not for Friday. Then again, Puck's parties usually ended with them hooking up and just the thought if that made her shift in her seat uncomfortably.

"Can't. Busy." She text back. Not thirty seconds later she had the reply. "_Come on Santana, u owe me for last night Lopez, give my hand a break._" She sighed and put her phone down on the counter as it buzzed again. She picked it up tonight to find another text from Puck: "_Wanna come over tonight and practise my birthday sex?_" Again she didn't credit him with any form of reply.

Santana started wolfing down her dinner the second it was placed on the table in front of her. She then head upstairs to quickly scribble out her Spanish essay and go over the topics in her maths book that she thought she would be tested on. After going downstairs to wish her mother goodnight, Santana set her alarm for early the next morning and finally let herself get into bed.

* * *

**A/N**: I can't believe it took me this long to update. I got writers block trying to figure out the chapter after this (yes, this has been fully written and waiting to be published for 10 months) because I always wanted to stay one chapter ahead. A lot of junk happened so I felt like I didn't have time for it even though I published a few other things since. In short: I'm a dick. Sorry.

The good news is that I really sat down and though about what I want to happen in this story and have a whole bunch of stuff that's being written or is just very well planned that I'm pretty excited about and can't wait to write up and publish. Alas, I started afresh on the next chapter so it might still be a while between updates for now. Sorry!

Also I have a tumblr and in the time it's taken me to publish this I've pretty much seen every Brittana blog I was following give up on the show. I'm not watching it right now but this story obviously doesn't lend itself to canon anyways so hopefully that won't be an issue!

One quick favour to ask: I recently got used to writing in present tense but I started this in past tense so I'm having to readjust to it. I wrote a fight scene in present tense that actually seems a lot nicer in present tense than past, though I can probably shift it if I need to - so if you could comment saying whether or not you'd be too bothered about the tense change (or whether you really don't care at all) that'd help me decide. Thanks!


	5. Chapter 4

**In Every Generation**

**Chapter 4**

Santana jolted awake on Wednesday morning and immediately threw a punch towards the noise to her left, relaxing slightly once it silenced. It took her a couple of seconds to realise that it was just her alarm clock, which was now laying in pieces after smashing against the wall.

Suddenly, there was a knock on her door. "Santana, honey, is everything alright?" the concerned voice of her father called from the hallway outside her room.

"Uh...yeah, Dad. Everything's fine." She responded, her voice still thick with sleep despite her dramatic awakening. "Just...dropped my phone." she added, trying to sounds convincing.

"Alright then. Your mother's making breakfast as we speak." Her father replied, before Santana hears his footsteps head downstairs. She sighed heavily and then stretched her arms. She felt like she hadn't really slept, despite the fact that she got to bed earlier than usual and had fallen asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow. She looked over at the shattered remains of her alarm clock, realising how tense she felt at that moment despite being in no immediate danger. And then everything she'd heard from Brad and Shelby the day before came back to her.

Santana had never seen a vampire in her life, and she was incredibly sceptic about the whole thing. None of it seemed to make any sense as a whole, but then there were the little parts that seemed to slot together a little too well to be coincidental: Her strength, Brad knowing her name, Shelby becoming the new librarian and coming forward as Santana's 'watcher' just as she gets her powers and becomes the 'slayer'. Santana took a deep breath, deciding that even if the slayer part _were_ just some prank, the powers are definitely there, and like Shelby said, she should probably focus on keeping them out of the attention of others until she can figure out how to either use them or make them go away. _Wishful thinking._

Santana hopped into the shower quickly to wake herself up before changing into her cheerio uniform and rushing downstairs. She could smell the amazing pancakes her mother was so good at making from the landing and it made her realise how hungry she was this morning.

"Good morning, sweetheart." Her mother greeted her with a smile, setting a plate at Santana's usual space at the table just as Santana took her seat opposite her father, who was reading through the sports section of the Lima Express. "You look much better this morning." She commented after giving Santana a quick critical once-over.

"Yeah. Must've just been stress or something." Santana replied through a mouthful of pancake. Her father got to his feet.

"Well, I'd best be getting to work." He commented, folding the paper and putting it on the table as he walked around it to kiss his wife on the cheek. "Santana, do you need a ride?"

"Why? What time is it?" Santana asked, looking up to the clock, and then practically jumping out of her seat. "Crap! I have practise this morning." Santana moved past her parents towards the stairs.

"Language, Santana. I thought you had practise after school?" Her mother called after her.

"It was moved, Quinn texted me yesterday." She yelled back over her shoulder. She dashed into her room to grab her bag and homework before charging back downstairs. "But I will be late home today, and then I have to go out again later. Sorry."

"Why?"

"Uhh-" Santana panicked, realising '_it's my_ _first slayer training session, wish me luck!' _would probably raise a fair few questions. "Going to get ice-cream with Brittany. And then we're having a movie night." She lied, then turned on her heel to head to where she'd left her trainers by the front door. "I'm already late. Can I please have that ride to school?"

"Sure honey. Let's go." Said her father, grabbing his coat off the rack by the door and leading the way to the car.

* * *

Sue forced Santana to run five wind-sprints for every minute she was late. Seventy-five wind-sprints later and Santana felt totally fine. But she knew she shouldn't, so once she'd completed her task she pretended to limp towards the bench panting, acting totally exhausted, and downed half of her water bottle as if completely dehydrated.

"Sloppy, ladies. Take five." The rest of the squad soon joined her after being given a break by Sue, Quinn making a beeline for her side.

"That was harsh. Why were you late anyway? Did you forget?" Quinn asked innocently, but Santana could see that under her concerned expression Quinn was slightly gleeful that Santana had messed up and wouldn't be threatening her position as head-cheerleader any time soon.

"My alarm broke." Santana replied, too stubborn to admit that she had forgotten about the early practise.

"Too bad. Hey, are you going to Puck's party on Friday?"

Santana grimaced. "I don't think so. He just wants me there for sex."

"Well duh, it's Puck. But since when have you ever said no? I thought it was a mutual thing?" Santana ignored Quinn's cheap shot at her reputation and took a sip of her water bottle, looking out over the practise field and then scanning across the other girls on the squad who who were stretching and gossiping around the bench. She soon found herself staring at her best friend.

As if she could sense that Santana had been looking at her, Brittany turned to face her, then quickly excused herself from the conversation she had been in and made her way over to Santana as Quinn headed back towards their coach to have a quick word before practise resumed.

"Hey, San!" She greeted with a smile that quickly appeared on Santana's face too. Brittany's happiness was always contagious. "Can we talk soon? I really miss you. Why can't we hang out anymore?" Brittany's bluntness meant that Santana's smile didn't stick around and Santana quickly fumbled over thoughts trying to find some excuse to feed her friend.

"Britt, I'm sorry, I-" She began before being cut off by Sue ordering them all back out onto the field.

On top of Santana's original punishment of detention, Santana found out the hard way that Sue had also decided to demote her to the bottom of the pyramid for the rest of the week. While this did infuriate her – she had worked hard to claim her spot and now some other girl she didn't even like was _literally_ using her as a stepping stone – it at least made it easier for her to keep her slayer strength in check, since her movements where confined to kneeling on all fours and – _nope, that was it. Just the kneeling._

After a quick debrief – or post-practise roast, to be more accurate – from Sue, in which two other girls who had apparently performed terribly were told they were going to be 'joining Lopez at lunchtime for more practise', Santana and the squad were finally allowed to hit the showers.

Her, Brittany and Quinn walked to Glee together. Brittany and Quinn kept each other held up in discussing Puck's party while Santana tried to block them out. She then took a seat at the back away from anyone else and tuned the world out. The only thing that caught her attention during Glee was the way Brad had taken to staring at her whether or not he thought she was looking. Since Santana had now heard a reason – an unrealistic, ridiculous reason, but a reason nonetheless – for why he showed such interest in her, she realised she didn't mind so much any more.

Her focus remained practically non-existent for more of the day.

In Math she could barely concentrate on the test in front of her, managing to scribble in every answer she could figure out without too much effort but doodling mindlessly for the rest of the period.

She actually fell asleep in Spanish, to be awoken by an irritated Mr Schuester.

"Santana, if you're not going to even _pretend_ to pay attention, I'm going to have to give you detention." Mr Schue stated. Santana apologised evenly, before correcting the conjugations he'd written on the board, causing him to blush at his errors. She leaned her head on her hand and stared out of the window for the remainder of the class. Once the bell rang she handed in her flawless Spanish essay and headed to her next class.

* * *

Santana arrived early to lunchtime cheer practise – she was already on Sue's shit list so she decided to play nice until her name was cleared. She was just doing her stretches when Sue and the two other girls made their way out onto the field. The other two girls came to a halt and started stretching together a few meters away from Santana, clearly aware of the stunt that had landed her in lunchtime practise in the first place and a little wary of her.

"Nice to see you on point Lopez. We'll be doing some aerial exercises today. Try not to kill anyone." Sue muttered to the girl as she walked past. Santana rolled her eyes but remembered Shelby's warning about acting like a regular teenage girl, with regular teenage speed and strength and endurance.

"Alright, ladies, warm up. Take a run to the end zone, last one back will be losing their spray tan privileges until the end of the month." Sue addressed them through her megaphone. The two girls who had now come to stand nearer Santana gasped at the threat but didn't actually start moving until Sue blew her whistle and yelled "Move!"

Santana let the two girls move first and then took off at what she'd thought was her normal speed, not noticing how quickly she'd picked up pace until she looked back to see the two other girls about thirty yards behind her when she was certain she had just passed them a second ago. Santana promptly slowed down - she still made it back first, but at least now the differences in the time taken between her and the other two were more realistic.

"About time, ladies. Lopez was starting to look so bored waiting for you to finish I considered sending her out there to _throw you_ back here herself."

Well, _almost _more realistic. The two girls eyed Santana warily and Santana wondered how long it would be before Sue would get over using that one screw-up as a joke.

They proceeded with the aerial exercises – using Santana as a flyer, which was probably a conscious decision on Sue's part, and the rest of the practise passed smoothly.

* * *

"So even though I'm a _vampire _slayer...it's not just vampires." Santana frowned at what Shelby was saying. She was in her second 'detention' and now that the initial dust had settled about Santana's identity, Shelby had decided to educate Santana further on what was expected of her as the slayer.

"No, unfortunately not. Vampires, demons, occasionally witches and warlocks. Every kind of evil, really." Shelby responded honestly.

"So what does a demon look like?"

"It depends on the kind of demon. There's hundreds of different types out there. Probably a fair few we don't even have information on yet."

"_Great_." Santana muttered sarcastically under her breath.

"Look, all of the vampire stuff is already in this book," Shelby tapped the cover of the large volume of 'Vampyr' that had resumed its' intimidating place on the desk in front of Santana, "and as for the demons...there's not a lot we can do about them until they show up. One thing at a time. You'll learn as you go."

"Okay. But how am I supposed to balance all of this crap-" Santana gestured sharply to the book, making reference to her new life as a slayer. "- with other things. I'm a high school student and a cheerleader. I barely have time for anything else."

"Well, one of the things you clearly have yet to master is prioritisation. Don't worry, that'll click into place once you realise that you are the one thing standing between everyone in Lima and _real mortal danger_." Shelby answered dryly. Santana rolled her eyes so Shelby elaborated. "You will find time for this – you think you're the first high school cheerleader to become a slayer? You're not."

Santana looked down, realising that girls just like her have been killed doing this- job? Duty? Santana wasn't even sure what to call it. Shelby quickly brought Santana back to the present by laying out what she'll actually be doing.

"Your training will be as often as we can squeeze it in - after, before or even during school hours. On weekends. During holidays. But in the evenings, starting soon, you will do patrols." Santana's head tilted in confusion so Shelby explained. "Lima has three cemeteries. When a vampire rises, this is generally where it'll rise from. Sometimes they make nests out of the crypts or hang around to prey on lone civilians. You'll patrol, find them and kill them as necessary. Obviously vampires won't be outdoors during daylight, so you won't have to worry about this clashing with school."

Santana nodded her head, trying to picture herself stalking around a graveyard in the dark looking for monsters – monsters she couldn't even picture. As if she'd just read Santana's mind, Shelby opened the book before her to a page showing a life-like sketch of a face.

"Here's the before shot." Shelby said. She then turned the page to show a sketch of what was almost the same face, except it was now grotesque – the brow was heavy, the eyes were more piercing, and instead of regular human teeth, there were clearly visible fangs. It was like a human face distorted, and chilled Santana more than she cared to admit. "And this is what comes out of the ground. Some vampires can change their composition back to the regular human form, which is obviously useful if they wish to blend in to hunt for victims." Shelby stated, and Santana shuddered. But she pushed her fear down and instead tried to embrace this whole situation.

She brought her head up to look Shelby in the eye.

"When can I see a real one?" She asked, not a hint of fear in her voice. Shelby met her eye evenly and answered.

"Tonight."

* * *

"You drive like an asshole." Santana stated, slamming her drivers side door shut and locking her vehicle before approaching the older woman.

"And yet you still managed to keep up with me."

After Shelby thought Santana had learned enough about vampires for the time being, she sent Santana home so she could change and eat something, telling her to meet back at school in two hours. Shelby had then explained they needed to drive somewhere, telling Santana to follow in her own car.

Santana smirked at Shelby's reply, before looking up at the warehouse Shelby had led her to. It was a large structure with grey but smooth concrete walls and a metal roof that had turned brown with rust. The place was clearly abandoned, with few of the window panes remaining intact, those that remained whole stained with dust and mould. Ivy and moss scaled the outside walls, not sparing the large brown wooden door that had deteriorated slightly at the edges from untreated damp. Santana frowned at the state of the building. Shelby noticed her apprehension.

"It's safe. Don't let the outside fool you, the interior structure is secure."

"Why do we need to be here?" Santana scrunched her nose as she asked.

"Look around us, what do you see?" Shelby asked, clearly making a point.

"Nothing." By the sunset Santana could see the building stood alone surrounded by vast plains of dirt that were probably once fields. Santana's car had almost had a couple of suspension issues handling the unmaintained lonely dirt road leading up to the warehouse.

"Exactly." Said Shelby, turning away to approach the entrance to the building and yanking on the rusted padlock that immediately gave way - clearly just a deterrent and no real use. "I needed somewhere remote for your training." She explained, sliding the door open and stepping inside. Santana quickly followed.

"Remote? Why not just use a gym?" Santana asked, as Shelby switched flicked a switch causing light to flood the interior of the warehouse. Santana almost jumped out of her skin when something towards the back of the warehouse suddenly moved. Santana locked eyes on the human form that was now staring straight at her. She flinched when it suddenly released a growl.

"They wouldn't let me keep one of _those _at the gym." Shelby said smartly, closing the door behind them before walking further in towards the figure. "Come on, it can't touch you." She called over her shoulder, causing Santana to take slow, cautious steps to follow until they were stood side by side about ten meters away from the vampire before them. Santana stood tense but relaxed slightly upon noticing it was chained and couldn't move further than a couple of feet in any direction from where its chains were attached to the floor.

Santana allowed herself another step forward to get a closer look and take in every detail. It was clearly a male, she could tell by the size, the hair and the ragged casual clothes. He was squatting, though his movements were not so limited by the restraints that squatting was necessary. She squinted, taking in the two dots just visible on his neck. When she got to the face, she gasped.

"That's..." Santana stared in shock at the former high school librarian - the one Shelby had since replaced. As if sensing that Santana recognised him, the vampire adopted a softer expression, almost as if it was sorry for itself. Santana inched closer slowly, totally transfixed by what had become of a former member of the school faculty.

And then he lunged.

Santana jumped backwards, stumbling and landing on her ass, before scrambling back in a rush, her face awash with fear. The vampire would never have been able to reach her anyway, his restraints too effective, but the shock pulsed through Santana. Shelby helped her to her feet.

"Are you alright?" She asked gently. Santana barely managed to shake her head, still frozen with shock.

It was all so real now she'd seen one in person. She turned to address Shelby while still keeping her gaze locked on the vampire.

"What happened to him?" She asked shakily.

"I'm not sure exactly. I found him in an alleyway not far from school and knocked him out to bring him here. His body was never recovered so there was no burial. Most likely he was attacked when he was out, he would've been bitten, but to change he would also have needed to consume his sire's blood-"

That was enough for Santana. She didn't hear the rest. This man who she once knew as a friendly face had been changed into a monster she could barely recognise. The reality made her nauseous. She quickly turned and ran, sliding the door open easily and making it another ten yards before dropping to her knees and releasing her stomach contents just beyond when Shelby had parked her car.

She was just wiping her mouth and standing back up on shaky legs when Shelby reached her.

"We're not doing anything else for today." Shelby calmly informed her, helping to lead Santana back to her car and opening the back door. Santana took a seat sideways so her body faced out away from the warehouse and she took deep breaths to calm herself. Shelby had gone to turn the lights out and 'lock up'. By the time she returned Santana felt just about okay to drive, and made her way to her own car without saying a word.

Shelby led the way back towards town, and then - despite it being out of her way - drove behind Santana until the teenager was safely home before turning around to head home herself.

The little sleep Santana did get was haunted by the face of the monster she met today.


End file.
